1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for managing information in units of folders.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, digital video cameras that are currently prevalent record video data and other content data in a storage medium such as a built-in hard disk drive (HDD) and a memory card. Content data recorded in such a storage medium of digital cameras may be copied to a built-in HDD of a personal computer (PC) and an external HDD connected to the PC via, for example, a USB cable. A plurality of content data are managed as one group in units of folders. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-288020 discloses a technique for managing a plurality of content files as a package in units of folders.
A content data management application software installed in PCs has functions of registering folder information of a folder to which content has been copied with a management unit, and deleting folder information of a folder that no longer needs to be managed from the management unit.
Examples of the function of registering folder information include: the function of newly generating and registering a folder for management in the HDD; and the function of selecting and registering a folder of content data copied in the HDD without using a video management application. Hereinafter, a folder generated by the application for registration is referred to as a “generated registration folder”. On the other hand, a folder selected for registration is referred to as a “selected registration folder”.
Examples of the function of deleting folder information include: the function of deleting a folder as well as content data in the folder from the HDD and deleting folder information from the management unit; and the function of deleting folder information from the management unit while leaving a folder and content data in the folder as-is. Hereinafter, processing for deleting a folder as well as content data in the folder from the HDD and deleting folder information from the management unit is referred to as “folder deletion”. On the other hand, processing for deleting only folder information from the management unit while leaving a folder and content data in the folder as-is is referred to as “folder cancellation”.
If the deletion processing is performed on a selected folder at the time of deleting folder information, the following inconvenience may arise. For example, in a case where content data is copied in a special folder used by an operating system (OS) of a PC, if the user performs the folder deletion processing with the selection of the special folder, then folders and files necessary for the OS to operate normally are deleted.